Defense Verdict in North Carolina Mesothelioma Trial

October 1, 2019 – Press Release

October 1, 2019 (Raleigh, NC) – Hawkins Parnell & Young secured a defense verdict in a personal injury mesothelioma case pending in Raleigh, North Carolina. The client, a sealing product manufacturer, was the only remaining defendant at trial. The trial lasted two weeks.

Plaintiffs Wade and Faye Gore alleged that Mr. Gore’s regular work with the client’s asbestos-containing gasket and packing products at a DuPont facility in the 1970s-1980s caused his mesothelioma. In closing arguments, plaintiffs’ counsel asked the jury to award upwards of $11 million in damages. After deliberation, the jury found that the defendant was not negligent in causing Mr. Gore’s mesothelioma, and awarded a defense verdict against the plaintiffs’ negligence claim.

Plaintiffs were represented by Darren McDowell and Frank Walden of Simon Greenstone Panatier and Janet Ward Black of Ward Black Law.

Plaintiffs called the following expert witnesses: Arnold Brody, Ph.D. (cell biology), and Edwin Holstein, M.D. (occupation medicine).

Defense experts were John Henshaw, M.P.H, C.I.H. (industrial hygiene), and Amy Madl, Ph.D. (inhalation toxicology).

Faye Gore, Individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Wade Miller Gore, Deceased, vs. 3M., et al., Case No. 5:16-CV-716-BR (United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Western Division.).